Ideas that have passed through the fire.

When we look at the history of writing, it can be shown that languages developed from pictographic images (pictures that conveyed ideas) over time into characters/letters which were combined to make words. Words used in combination communicated ideas and have been the foundation of our modern languages today . In the above chart you can see the aleph is an ox head which symbolizes strength and the ayin is a picture of an eye. These pictures were used in combination to communicate ideas before languages existed. The pinnacle of the evolution of language has been grammar, syntax and punctuation. These signposts direct us as to how to use words in combination to bring into reality the ideas we wish to communicate. It provides controls on meaning so we aren’t just guessing what other people are saying. Now, it seems, our languages are headed in the opposite direction. The advent of texting has created a humiliation of words. Look at any news story, major headline or article and one will almost certainly find misspelled words, grammatical errors, incorrect usages etc. It has proliferated our society. As we continue to use technology that creates shortcuts for communicating we can expect to see more of these errors being introduced into the English language. The de-evolution of language doesn’t seem to be slowing any time soon either. We shrink words down to numbers, acronyms, and half words in order to fit them on our phone the fastest way possilbe. People speak using these acronyms, I “Lol’ed” etc. It would not be a surprise if in the future, we will be communicating via hieroglyphs to shorten language to its most basic elements. What can we do to reverse the tides of modern language degeneration? My only suggestions are to make a concerted effort to ensure we communicate correctly. Studying grammar, looking words up in the dictionary when we don’t know their meaning, checking your spelling and striving to write better are all ways we can try to combat the tendency to take the path of least resistance when it comes to communicating. In other words, words matter.